A pile of charred boards was all that remained of a former blacksmith shop after a fire in View Royal on Saturday (Feb. 17), but the blaze will have little impact on the Victoria Highland Games Association’s operations.
“It’s been empty for couple of years,” the association’s executive director Jim Maxwell said of the burnt building. “We were actually thinking of repurposing it for storage.”
The fire briefly disrupted a fashion show going on in the Victoria Scottish Community Centre also located on the association’s Craigflower Road site. The flames were far enough away that the show could continue, Maxwell said. The building that burned to the ground didn’t hold any heritage designations.
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The association, which has hosted one of Canada’s largest Highland Games for 159 years, built the community centre and marked its first year in use on Robbie Burns Day.
“The centre is operating very successfully we’re just finishing all the landscaping on the overall property,” Maxwell said.
View Royal Fire Rescue was on the scene quickly and dealt with the blaze, Maxwell said, adding they now await a report on what caused the fire.
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